MLA

In most Canadian provinces and territories, elected legislators bear the title of MLA, for Member of the Legislative Assembly. This is usually used in contrast with MP, the title given to members of the federal Parliament. MLAs are elected under the first past the post system in single-member ridings; thus there are as many MLA's in a given province's legislature as there are ridings.

The three provinces that do not use the title MLA each have their own title. Ontario representatives are titled MPPs for Members of the Provincial Parliament; despite this, the Ontario legislature is still called the Legislative Assembly. In the sweep of nationalist sentiment that covered Quebec in the 1960s, their legislature was renamed to the (pretentious-sounding) National Assembly, with a corresponding title, MNA. Finally, when Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, it brought its own title, Member of the House of Assembly (MHA). When talking about provincial legislators in general, the term MLA is often used regardless of the official title in each province, mainly because 'MLA or MPP or MNA or MHA' is a tremendously awkward phrase.

The number of MLAs varies by province, from Prince Edward Island's 27 to Quebec's 125. The territorial legislatures are even smaller, as would be expected from their sparse population. Except in the case of Ontario, there are more provincial legislators than there are MPs from that province; Ontario's provincial ridings are the same as its 103 federal ridings. There are presently 306 seats in the Parliament of Canada; this is why Ontario is such an important province in Canadian federal politics.